(10 of 10)
Dying under these challenges is a church that was content to see its members "hatched, matched and dispatched," and preferred that they ask few questions about their faith. Emerging as a renewed church that claims to be the mystical body of Christ, it will appear more credible to men as it sheds no longer relevant trappings of past ages and what Hans Küng calls its aspects of unfreedom. In this emerging church, Cushing neither deserves nor gets any credit as originator, rebel, theologian, theoretician or organizer of the change. But he does stand out as the intuitive old party in a high place who gave renewal a hearty push just because it seemed the right thing to do.
* Irreverently known in Boston as "Gangplank Willie," for his many trips to Bermuda.